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Recent News and developments

December 2012: Jewish World Watch, originator of the Solar Cooker Project for Sudanese refugees, reviews their current programs at several of the refugee camps in Chad – As a result of a joint security force between Chad and Sudan, violence against women has declined some since the project began seven years ago. Cord, their partner at the Farchana refugee camp, sees solar cooking as a way to keep girls in school, and not spending hours finding fuelwood for cooking. For others, the project has meant help for the environment and the air quality conditions for women previously using open fires. When the Jewish World Watch contingent first visited the camps many years ago, the refugees had just arrived and the encampment was meant to be temporary. The hope and expectation was that within a few months or a couple of years at most; they would return to their homes. But now, seven years later, it is clear that returning to Darfur is not a reality and the camps are turning into permanent settlements. As a result, the programs for the refugees must begin to move away from survival resources and begin to address ways of achieving self-sufficiency and permanence. In other words, helping to create a life, not an existence. Future larger scale solutions will be needed to address and benefit the surrounding communities, as well as the refugee camps, to help with the integration of the Sudanese residents. Read more...

March 2012: On March 13 at the House of Commons, the charity Cord is going to announce an extension of its innovative program of solar cooker deliveries and essential training. Cord originally commissioned research by Bolivia Inti-Sud Soleil, who identified the difficult task of it often taking ten hours to look for wood needed for cooking and warmth, as well as the damaging environmental impact it is having on tree cover in Chad. Cord is hosting its parliamentary reception with MP for Warwick and Leamington Chris White, who is backing the scheme. Read more...